Detergent and cleansing compositions intended for use as personal cleansing products not only must exhibit good cleansing and foam characteristics but they must also be non-irritating or have low irritation potential to the skin and the eyes.
Synthetic detergents which are useful in such detergent and cleansing compositions are well known in the art and include anionic, cationic, amphoteric and nonionic detergents or surfactants, as they are usually referred to. It is desirable that detergent and cleansing compositions have good foam volume and good foam stability, particularly if they are to be used as shampoos. The amount of foam generated by a shampoo composition has a direct bearing on the perceived efficiency with which it cleans the hair. The stability of the foam generated provides an indication to the user as to how long it will keep the hair lathered. Generally speaking, the greater the volume of foam produced and the more stable the foam, the more efficient the perceived cleansing action of the shampoo. In addition, other detergent and cleansing compositions, such as liquid skin cleansers and baby bath compositions, are enhanced by high foam volume and good foam stability.
The surfactants generally exhibiting the more superior properties in terms of foaming, cleaning and end result attributes are the anionic detergents. Thus, most detergent and cleansing formulations intended for personal use contain anionic surfactants as one of the active ingredients. These surfactants, however, have a tendency to be very irritating to the skin and the eyes in the levels normally utilized, i.e., above 10% by weight of the total composition. For this reason, detergent compositions intended for personal use containing anionic surfactants are modified by substituting a significant amount of nonionic surfactants which are generally mild although of less effective foaming and cleansing ability. Certain amphoteric surfactants have also been reported to have a low eye irritation potential. Although numerous detergent and cleansing compositions are available commercially, there is still a need for compositions in which irritancy can be substantially eliminated without sacrificing other desired properties such as cleansing and foaming attributes.
In the prior art, attempts to achieve such low ocular irritating compositions have been described, such as by Masci et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,055,836, Bolich et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,928,521 and Verdicchio et al. in U.S. Pat. No. Re. 30,641. Such compositions have contained either an amphoteric/anionic reaction product or a betaine/sultaine-anionic blend in combination with an ethoxylated nonionic, but such formulations have generally exhibited inferior foam volume and stability when compared to traditional shampoo formulations.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide improved detergent and cleansing compositions.
It is a further object of this invention to provide improved detergent and cleansing compositions which exhibit low irritation potential to the eyes and skin.
It is a still further object of this invention to provide improved detergent and cleansing compositions which exhibit good foaming properties including excellent foam stability.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to one skilled in the art from the detailed description given hereinafter.